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Two Qatari sisters have been tear-gassed by masked men on a Paris motorway and robbed to the tune of more than £4million, in the latest major heist to shock the French capital.

The tourists, both aged in their 60s, had just left Le Bourget airport when they were flagged down by the robbers on the A1 motorway near a service station.

After spraying both women and their driver with tear gas, the men forced open the car's boot and fled with an estimated five million euros (£4.2million) worth of valuables.

Carjackers and thieves from the northern suburbs of Paris often target cars leaving from both Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports via the motorways.

It comes after the US reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris hotel by masked men who fled with nearly 10million euros in goods.

"[They took] everything in the vehicle: jewels, clothes, luggage," one police source said of the motorway robbery yesterday, while another described the incident as a "spectacular" heist.

Kim Kardashian was also the victim of a massive jewellery heist in Paris

An investigation into the robbery, which took place at around 9pm on Monday night, was opened on Tuesday after the driver contacted French police.

The female tourists, who have not been identified, are yet to come forward. The sisters' ordeal is the latest in a spate of daring high-profile heists in Paris in which gangs target celebrities and wealthy businessmen.

In October Kardashian, the wife of US rapper Kanye West, was gagged and tied up by masked robbers who had gained access to her exclusive hotel suite by posing as police officers.

She was locked up in the bathroom before the robbers fled the scene with a ring worth five million euros, a case of jewellery worth four million, and two mobile phones.

She had been staying in the Hotel de Pourtalès, a 19th century neo-Renaissance town mansion in Paris' cosseted 8th arrondissement.

The robbers remain at large. Sources close to Kardashian said at the time she was left "badly shaken but physically unharmed."

The high-profile case prompted Karl Lagerfeld, the leading fashion designer, to warn her and other celebrities against ostentatious displays of wealth in the French capital.

"I don't understand why she was in a hotel with no security," he said. "If you're that famous and you put all your jewellery on the internet then you go to a hotel where nobody can come near to the room.

"You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you."

In another recent incident, Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat was punched in the face and sprayed with tear gas by three men in an upmarket area of Paris earlier this month.

The 40-year-old star and her partner were attacked as they returned to an apartment building in the 16th arrondissement by three masked men who tried to steal her handbag.

And in April 2015 a collector of Korean art was robbed of four millions euros after a gang of men smashed the window of her taxi with a large rock.

The previous year, a Saudi prince's convoy was attacked by at least eight robbers driving BMWs as it made its way from central Paris to Le Bourget airport.